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K, so this is my first real post on the forum here, but if I don't put these guys up, I will never get back to converting the rest of them (or learning how to paint for that matter). So, in order to get me away from reading modeling and painting tips, battle reports, rumored changes to a codex I have never actually played with: I will post the first six guys I have finished modeling so I can start to get some feedback on where I am going with these bad boys.

Enough chit chat. The basic premise behind this army, The United Tau Forces (UTF), is I love the idea of a beacon of hope in the grim gritty darkness of the very far future, but the Tau aren't quite it. So I have gone even more lovey dovey and come up with these guys, who will just function like the Tau they are supposed to, except drop the Caste stuff, have rank and file Gue'ves Fire Warrior, lots of converted Imperium/Eldar/possible decent type technology (that will be fashioned to function like they would in a Tau bit). Think Sentinel Walker Broadsides etc... But before I get ahead of myself (and all the lil infantry type buggers I have yet to get through) I produce the pictures I took with my phone 10 minutes ago and uploaded 5.









And there you go for now. More when I've got them.

I love the traitor guard but I think that the eldar would be too pompus to use another race tech

Definitely get that too, but even still I'm gonna have a few floating around. Mind you not many, and I don't have an exact ratio on everybody else either, probably about 5 Tau, to 3 humans, to 1 Eldar. Roughly. We'll see how it shapes up.

BOOM! traitor guard exterminated!
all jokes aside i love the idea!

I think i read some fluff that said that the tau let the traitor guard keep thier weapons and only gave them pulse rifles and such in direst circumstanses.

At first sight the Eldar is a bit ??? but he could be from an Exodite world within the Tau volume of space.

Good point. there was a quote in the 3rd ed. tau codex that stated how th eldar felt a cretain kinship towards the tau

The Eldar seems like a bit of a stretch. Even though the Eldar have a soft spot for the Tau (because the Eldar created them!) I can't see the Eldar using Tau weaponry and armor.

Perhaps one or two Eldar pathfinders might lead Tau pathfinder squads? That seems like the only way it would make sense to me, but it could be cool.

Wait a minute, who said anything about the eldar creating the tau, its been speculated that they created the ethereals so that the tau would help protect them, but thats the first I've heard about the tau being the eldars creation.

Its a big galaxy. Why not have a totally mixed up warband of fun

Maybe they were convicted of a crime they didn't commit? Perhaps they broke out of a maximum security Tau penitentary? Maybe they need a black devilfish with a spoiler and red stripe?
And just maybe if you're in trouble, and nobody else can help, and if you can find them you might be able to hire them (The Aun' Team?) (damnit... mind is now filled with the image of an ethereal with a big cigar and a manic grin!)

Nice

@ ph34r: curious where you are getting the Eldar created the Tau? Just haven't seen the source material to support it.

@Flinty: That I may have to get into after I prove to myself that I can paint. I can't help but think of Mr T as an Ork for some reason. The idea needs flushing out.

So I'm thinking UTF are gonna go the rebel route. A caste-less Tau Empire. Farsight shows the Tau can do rebel. Dark Eldar sorta show the Eldar can drop ranks and fight for somebody else (although I'll probably need to find some alternate Eldar fluff to back that one up). The Imperium's greatest threat is from a twisted version of itself. Don't think it is to much of a stretch that some of them might grow tired of having few liberties and might want some more.

I think you could help make the mixed unit more convincing with some better posing. The Tau in the first picture looks like he's pinching a loaf, and the human in the last picture is falling over. And what is the Eldar doing, handing out a Cadian helmet? I don't really get it. Your legwork is great, though, just looking at the legs in the last picture shows the differences between the races when dressed in Tau armor. This idea could certainly work well with some improved posing.

The eldar are easy to include. Eldar Rangers wander the galaxy for ages doing whatever the hell they like. Why not join the Aun Team

Flinty wrote:Its a big galaxy. Why not have a totally mixed up warband of fun

Maybe they were convicted of a crime they didn't commit? Perhaps they broke out of a maximum security Tau penitentary? Maybe they need a black devilfish with a spoiler and red stripe?
And just maybe if you're in trouble, and nobody else can help, and if you can find them you might be able to hire them (The Aun' Team?) (damnit... mind is now filled with the image of an ethereal with a big cigar and a manic grin!)

+1
run home for the win.

@oaka: I get the falling over pose. He does kinda now that you mention it, but he's sorta doing a under attack by a skimmer backwards diving shot. No the best angle on him, and he certainly does not look great in the pic. The Eldar is admiring a little plasma rifle handiwork (there is a nice sized hole in the side of the helmet that I hope to paint to stand out a little bit without screwing it up). The loaf thing I'm not sure I understand. The one with the bonding knife? It is supposed be a marker light (although looking through it would have made that more evident). Appre ciate the advice. Certainly going to have to keep an eye on the posing.

Haven't read much Eldar fluff. Any particular advice there?

CpatTom wrote:@oaka: The loaf thing I'm not sure I understand.

He looks like he's butt-summoning a fudge dragon, courtesy flushing for the Greater Good, ordering Exterminatus in his pants, etc.

He looks like he's pooping.

I see the hole in the helmet now, it makes a lot more sense. I think a helmetless Eldar smoking a cigar would be great, like he's admiring his kill shot after the battle.

Haonn wrote:Wait a minute, who said anything about the eldar creating the tau, its been speculated that they created the ethereals so that the tau would help protect them, but thats the first I've heard about the tau being the eldars creation.

Yeah, they created the ethereals is what I mean. Without the Eldar's intervention the Tau would have been just another random savage race that wiped itself out in the stone age and never really did anything.

So after much research, I think I have determined where the Eldar creation of the Aun theory crops up. In Xenology there is reports of Eldar assistance to the Q'orl, who are inclined to focus on the hives well being above all else, and after the Eldar help expel the Human invasion, they steal the Q'orl Hive Queen type. The interesting thing is that each Q'orl contains two of the unidentified Diamond organism within the chemical sacks the Q'orl use for communication (olfactory, similar to, you guessed it, the Tau). So, if the Eldar had a Q'orl queen they could create as many Aun caste as they wanted, to cause (what appears to be the purpose of the organ) the reduction of self value to a fanatical appreciation for that of the whole society/race/group.

Thus the Aun team is perfectly possible as long as they are olfactory based organisms.

Edit: oh, and I guess he looks like hes dumping. That is what they have awesome technology for.

Nice, original conversions.
A+++ would definitely read your threads again.

That's much better ph34r.